Networked control systems are a ubiquitous trend in commercial, industrial and institutional business markets and also in consumer markets. An example of a networked control system is a complex lighting system with dozens of light sources. Examples of professional environments are lighting systems applied in green houses, factory buildings, sport halls, office buildings and outdoor (matrix) light displays. Particularly, in professional environments it becomes more and more interesting to control devices of a networked control system on an individual and local basis, for example in order to save energy in large lighting systems.
Devices of networked control system such as luminaires of a lighting system can be controlled by sending messages over a wired or a wireless medium. Wireless is attractive because it reduces installation costs and makes the installation more flexible. One of the major drawbacks of wireless networks is the instability of the routing of the messages over the network of devices usually leading to large number of message drops. The cause of the instability is the maintenance of paths over the network, because every time a link fails, new paths have to be found and broadcasted over the network.
WO2007/102114A1 relates to grouping of wireless communication nodes in a wireless communication network, which are configured to control the operation of luminaries in a lighting array. A computer algorithm for grouping a derived spatial arrangement of wireless communication nodes is provided. The position of each node in the communication network corresponds to the position of a particular luminaire in the lighting array. The algorithm divides the arrangement of nodes into a plurality of spatial groups, each of which is defined by a line which joins the group's member nodes together. The groups are ranked according to their statistical attributes and a number of groups are selected as control groups, such that the member nodes, and hence luminaries, of each control group may be controlled by a single switch or sensor.